JANE KIRBY

A couple have spoken of their joy after becoming parents to children conceived with the help of two lesbian surrogate mothers.

Tracy and Pete Akoun suffered repeated miscarriages and fell victim to a conwoman as they battled to fulfil their dream.

Disappointed but undeterred, the couple joined a Facebook group for surrogacy and met Tricia Hunt and Kate Fruin-Smith, two lesbians who each have their own partners and children and live in different parts of the UK.

The group came together to create Nyobi and Kenya who were born last summer exactly one month apart.

Ms Fruin-Smith and Mrs Hunt both agreed to become surrogates using their own eggs and Mr Akoun’s sperm.

Mrs Hunt received £750 a month in expenses while Ms Fruin-Smith received £550 a month.

Mrs Akoun, 47, from Portsmouth, accidentally fell pregnant with twins not long after meeting her husband but suffered a miscarriage.

She says she then suffered “repeated losses” after that.

She added: “I saw a programme about surrogacy and Pete went away and researched it and asked how I felt about it.”

The couple created a profile on a surrogacy website but were duped by a conwoman into handing over £400.

They were overjoyed to meet Ms Fruin-Smith, but she suggested she only wanted to carry one baby. The couple wanted two children and so approached Mrs Hunt, who was willing to carry a second child.

Both women fell pregnant - using syringes and a Mooncup to carry the sperm - in autumn 2015.

Mrs Akoun, an assistant manager in a care home, said: “We were absolutely ecstatic. I don’t think Pete took it on board at all.

“I think he was worried that something might go wrong.

“At the end of the day, you worry until that baby is in your arms. We took each day at a time.” Nyobi was born to Mrs Hunt two weeks early on 4 June, 2016, at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester. Kenya was born to Ms Fruin-Smith a month later, on July 4, at Rotherham General Hospital in South Yorkshire.